If you’ve ever spent an afternoon wandering around downtown Monterey, you’ve certainly walked by an old adobe building attached to a single-story wood-slatted structure about a block from the waterfront.

Pause for a moment on the corner of Pacific and Scott streets and you’ll find the modest buildings stand out as being demonstrably older and perhaps more delicate looking than the nearby hotels, retail storefronts and restaurants that have come to define the neighborhood.

Pause for a little bit longer and you may be met with the sounds of singing, dancing and laughter spilling out from the buildings onto the street. No, you’re not hearing things, you are right in front of California’s First Theatre, which, throughout its 180-year history, has itself made several comebacks.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

But even with recent restoration efforts, and the house lights turning on here once more, the next act of California’s First Theatre is still far from guaranteed.

The first theater in California, the entertainment capital of the world, didn’t start out as a place for aspiring actors and singers to launch their careers. In 1843, a young entrepreneur named Jack Swan arrived in Monterey from Scotland with the idea that he could start a business in the buzzing military port that was a gateway to California.

California’s First Theatre in Monterey, Calif., 1900.

Swan soon bought a parcel of land and built a pie house, inn and saloon on the corner and was in business by 1846. The next year, Swan added a long adobe-style building next door and opened it as a boarding house. Swan’s endeavor was a success and drew the attention of the local authorities who temporarily shut it all down, declaring that it was “in violation of anti-liquor and gambling laws.”

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

In 1848, a group of sailors wanted to put on a minstrel show in the boarding house and approached Swan. It was a hit. Over the next 21 months, Swan hosted 10 plays, drawing notable performers of the time to the intimate space.

“It’s hugely important,” said Nicolette Eason Trottier, president of the

© SFGate